fast food toys

February 12, 2014 - Right now, the premiums in the McDonald's Happy Meals are cups from The LEGO Movie. As you can almost see in these pictures, the cups are lenticular. They are also fairly sturdy, so it might be worth getting a full set via eBay. Speaking of eBay, the boy did talk me into a set of last month's Adventure Time toys and a set of the Build-A-Bear toys from December.

January 20, 2014 - We were hermits in December, but the Adventure Time toys at McDonald's lured us out... and then the toys were delayed! The boy was so mad about it that he didn't even want to stay and eat there on that visit. The second time we checked for the Adenture Time toys, he had settled down a bit and accepted the Ice Age toy and played in the playroom. He's caught on to eBay now, so after getting the first Jake toy, he requested that I just "order the rest" from eBay.

December 18, 2013 - November saw just a single visit to McDonald's, and the boy scored a blue Build-A-Bear. eBay came through with the other Angry Birds Star Wars trick-or-treat buckets, together in a single lot with a few Angry Birds plush toys which were assimilated into the Borg Collective of his plush toys.

November 15, 2013 - McDonald's had trick-or-treat buckets in October, so the boy informed us that we were going. Period. No discussion allowed. He was happy with the Angry Birds Star Wars bucket he got, but quietly let me know later on that I would need to "go online and order the other two" for him. Another visit to McDonald's after Halloween resulted in a cute little book and a bookmark.

October 18, 2013 - The past month was a huge blur and we did not get to any fast food restaurants to eat or buy toys. This month we definitely need to get to a McDonald's that has the trick-or-treat buckets and to Carl's Jr to check out the Despicable Me 2 toys. We missed the Batman toys at McDonald's, so that might mean another eBay purchase.

Let's see what's out there in restaurants this month!

A quick check of the web sites for the more popular fast food restaurants reveals the following:

- The Wendy's web site still does not list the toys at all, but I did recently see a television commercial (!!!) promoting their Scared Shrekless Halloween toys. If you are on Facebook, you can see an album of these toys at this link. The toys are: a Shrek/Fiona mask, a Cat Attack Puss in Boots, Donkey Ears, a Donkey Sipper (straw topper), a Haunted Frame, and a Spooky Noises Shrek figure. (More after the jump)

September 18, 2013 - The boy has been collecting the Power Rangers toys from McDonald's and was able to get most of them before the Colorado flooding hit our area. Hopefully he can finish the MegaZord before the promotion ends.

I was able to snag a batch of the Sonic Justice League toys off eBay. It's not a complete set, but it had the pieces I wanted, so I was happy.

August 19, 2013 - Earlier this month, the boy got a Smurfs toy at McDonald's and loved it so much that he asked us to get him a set online, meaning from eBay. As you can see from the picture above, we did. All 16 of them. That's a lot of Smurfs! What amuses me about this is that he has no interest in the Smurfs movie, the Smurfs cartoon, or even a Smurfs book that I showed him at the library. (You know to click "read more" if you are seeing this on the front page, right?)

August 5, 2013 - McDonald's is on fire this summer with the toys in their Happy Meals. The Spy Gear toys were a huge hit in our house, as were the Despicable Me 2 Minion figures, and now they have gorgeous toys from Smurfs 2.

Our boy is enjoying the Minions as we dole them out to him, and so far his favorite is this Evil Minion with the party noisemaker.

The neat thing about it is that there's a mouthpiece on the back, so when you blow on it, it really does make noise.

So you can imagine his disappointment when he went to McDonald's and got a Smurf figure with a party noisemaker, and... it does not make noise. It is "just" a sculpture. Poor kid. (more after the jump)

IRVINE, Calif., July 23, 2013 -- Taco Bell® today announced that it will discontinue kid's meals and toys at its U.S. restaurants, becoming the first national quick service restaurant chain to do so. Select restaurants will begin the removal in July, with nationwide implementation anticipated by January 2014.

"As we continue our journey of being a better, more relevant Taco Bell, kid's meals and toys simply no longer make sense for us to put resources behind," said Greg Creed, chief executive officer of Taco Bell. "What does make sense is concentrating on expanding choices that meet and exceed the diverse needs of consumers of all ages, without losing focus on what makes us great today."

July 14, 2013 - The McDonald's Spy Gear toys last month went over so well that we ended up buying two more sets off eBay - the 2006 set and the 2012 set. So we have tons of Spy Gear to play with and a few lost projectiles to find.

Cereal premiums are competing with fast food toys for the boy's attention this month, though: at the moment, General Mills cereals have small Despicable Me 2 Minion toys in them and Kellogg's cereals have codes which can be redeemed for a Monsters University pillowcase. One morning he ate a custom mix of Trix and Apple Jacks.